Death Games
by Krillia
Summary: Gojyo is used as a pawn in someone else's game, leaving Hakkai to figure out the rules and win him back. June 5th: 1 new chapter
1. Introduction

Disclaimer: Gensomaden Saiyuki is copyright Minekura Kazuya, Studio Pierrot, and, in America, Tokyopop. No infringement or disrespect is intended by this non-profit work of fan fiction. This is a work of noncommercial amateur fan fiction; it is not published for profit or material gain. The author and the posters have no intent to infringe any intellectual property rights held by the owners of existing copyrights in Gensomaden Saiyuki or its derivative works. The author retains copyright to this work.

～～～～～～～

Ｉｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎ

When people said "I don't know how it came to this," it was often because they were just stupid, or unobservant, or didn't want to admit that they had ignored the signs because it was easier that way .

This, however. There had been signs, certainly. Large, multi-colored neon signs, flashing their message with all the force of an earthquake. How it had come to this was obvious and traceable, like the trail of an elephant through a desert.

_Why_ it had come to this was a bit harder to answer. The word implied a logical reason for why a man who had helped save the world had been broken down. Why he had been shattered, and left for emotionally dead on the dank and dirty floor of his own mind. Camels never asked for the final straw. The man, however, had accepted his burden, had carried it dutifully to the west with only occasional argument. Only to have a 4-ton beam fall from the roof of the stable in which he'd stop to rest after dropping off the load.

Wrong place. Wrong time. Everything was wrong. Period.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Gojyo was certain this was all quite unfair.

He wasn't exactly sure why he had agreed to do the shopping anyway. Or perhaps not agreed, per se. He'd agreed to draw cards with Hakkai, and the lowest would go out and find something to eat. He should have known better than to draw against Hakkai. He really should have. He blamed on a moment of weakness and 48 hours without beer. Since the stupid little so-called inn they had chosen to stop off at offered neither food nor drink, they were stuck with finding it themselves. And Gojyo had lost the completely fair method of deciding who would be the one to go out.

He scanned the crowd, searching for a stall or shop that would serve a serviceable meal. He was just about to veer towards a hopeful looking edge of the square when someone stepped in front of him.

"Please take this, sir," a shriveled shrew of a man said, holding out a bag.

Gojyo accepted the small sack without a word or a thought, holding onto it while he continued walking, looking for some random fruit or vegetable or teriyaki stand. People did odd things all the time, he had learned after the umpteenth village. Probably some piece of paper or other inside, telling him he would get a free beer or free bean if he went to some restaurant in the outskirts of the village. He'd look at it later, or maybe throw it away when the man couldn't see him. He was tired. He wanted food. He wanted to go back to the hovel of an inn he and Hakkai were staying at. He wanted to sleep.

Really, what he wanted was to be back home. No more saving the world, no more being hated or adulated wherever they went, for something that really hadn't been their choice in the first place, although the journey west certainly hadn't been against their will, either. He wanted to sleep in his own damn bed, not a thousand more futons, floors and beds that most definitely weren't his.

Sure, they'd been back. But they kept having to go places. Bothersome places. Gatherings and meetings and places where they either had to prostrate themselves, or were prostrated to. All quite, quite mind-boggling, and completely maddening. ああ

Now Hakkai and he were in some little backwater village, spending a night or two in the inn on the way back to the cottage they now shared. After yet another meeting at yet another temple that felt it was required that all four of them had to corroborate each other's accounts of how they had saved the world from the tremendously horrible threat. After which they'd been fed heavily, and sent on their individual ways. Sanzo taking Goku one direction, Hakkai and Gojyo traveling in another. It was something they'd done a dozen times or more. Boring. Annoying.

Lost in his train of irritable thoughts, Gojyo was not ready for the gunshot. He felt it whistle past his ear, smacking into the wall. Those closest to him moved away quickly, most everyone didn't even seem to move. Business as usual. Gojyo dropped the sack and spun, scanning, trying to find the attacker. There was none to be seen.

Cautiously, still scanning, utterly baffled as to the reasonably unconcerned behavior of the citizens, Gojyo turned back to the wall. A half-inch chunk of material had been blasted from the soft plaster. Definitely a projectile.

The next one hit him in the lower arm. It stung, burned, and started bleeding. Gojyo blinked in shock, shook his head slightly to clear it, and darted around the corner. Best not to stay where there were people shooting at you randomly, even if no one else gave a damn. His eyes darting carefully around the alley, marking escapes and possible points of entry. Quickly, ready to move again, Gojyo paused to examine the wound, and his confusion grew. It had already stopped bleeding, But a strange sort of blue webbing, either from the shock of the hit or something in the arrow mixing with his blood, was visible in and around the wound. Bright blue, practically glowing. Either the strangest poison in the world, or he was being marked for something. Gojyo figured either way, he should probably continue moving. He didn't like this at all. He suddenly wanted an ally. Wanted Hakkai. Maybe the man could figure this shit out.

He turned, swiftly moving in the direction he had come. If the damn blue stuff was some sort of poison, he wasn't about to wait around and let it mess with his body or dye his entire body blue. He'd look like some sort of freak. And even in possibly dire straights, Gojyo took a moment to appreciate the irony of that.

The arrow that hit the wall above his head promptly drove all moments of appreciation from his head. This time, when he spun around, he saw his attacker, sitting calmly in a doorway with a cigarette in his mouth. The man smirked up at him, casually cocking the crossbow in his hands for another shot. Gojyo didn't waste words trying to convince the man that he was an ally. He ran. Running was good. When people had large, high-power projectiles pointed at your chest, you got the fuck out of their way. Especially if you had a glowing blue arm that might kill you at any moment. Gojyo dropped the sack and the small change purse he'd been carrying and swung himself down the next alleyway, cursing. As he gained distance from the attacker, he forced himself down to a swift walk. As cool as could be, a ruse for anyone not trying to kill him. Footsteps would be treated as enemies until proven innocent, he decided.

What he was not prepared for was the crying. Soft, choked, and utterly terrified sobs, coming from behind some piles of garbage.

He shouldn't stop. For all he knew, in five seconds he could be dead, either from a bolt in his back or the blue stuff having its merry time on his arm. Or from some random god in heaven deciding to strike him with a lightening bolt. He wouldn't be surprised.

But Gojyo considered himself to be a nice guy, as was. And nice guys didn't just walk away from the terrified cries of children, even when people were trying to kill them. He shifted his gait, slightly, letting it take him towards the side of the alley where the sound was coming from.

"Hey?" Gojyo called quietly, barely over a whisper. He wanted the person doing the crying to hear him, but was less willing to call attention to himself to anyone stalking the shadows. Especially since the shadows apparently came with complimentary crossbow bolts.

The sobbing halted, with a quick and shocked intake of breath. There was no answer, and the shift of bags and boxes indicated that whoever it was had moved further away from him, closer to the wall.

"Hey, kid," Gojyo pressed, not sure why. He really needed to get the fuck away from this damn place, and the random people who were trying to kill him for no apparent reason. "I won't hurt you."

There was a long pause, and Gojyo finally stood with an annoyed grunt. This was ridiculous. He might be dying, and he was trying to help some snot-nosed brat who didn't even want his help. He was setting himself up for another careful retreat when three men entered the alley to his right, simultaneous with the man with the crossbow catching up, blocking passage on the left.

He knew he shouldn't have stopped. Slowly, Gojyo shifted. Fighting position, all bravado and guts, neither of which he was particularly feeling right now, but it was better to give the impression of arrogance and self-assuredness than none at all. Carefully, he took stock of the situation. There were more than he'd thought. Three on the right, one with a gun and two with quite sharp looking and angry weapons Gojyo was unfamiliar with.. The man on the left with the crossbow, and another behind him that Gojyo couldn't quite make out. A quick glance upward confirmed for Gojyo that he was surrounded. Two more on the roof. He'd taken down more, but he was good at fighting in, and had developed his style for, large open spaces. Not narrow dark alleys with everything to get in the way of the staff and chain of his weapon. But it was always better to pretend.

"I just came into town to buy some lunch," he said, carefully. "I don't want any trouble." Of course he didn't. It just seemed to want him. Along with his head, together on a silver platter with a garnish of parsley.

All seven of the men burst out laughing simultaneously.

"No offence, half-breed," the largest, a big man with a shotgun and a face that looked like it had once been blown off by one, sniggered. "But you're just the Blue in this game. It's the girl we want, she's the Gold."

Gojyo didn't think about it. He was pretty sure that it wouldn't make any more sense even if he did think about it, so he just went with it.

"Okay. But I seem to be in your way. I'm sure none of us want to die," he said, eyes scanning desperately for a way out that didn't involve mowing anyone down. It wasn't available, and so Gojyo began to search again, this time for the path of least resistance. Technically Crossbow and the gooney behind him were only two men, but he couldn't tell what kind of men they were, and Crossbow himself had the sort of look about him that made people want to be on the other side of the village square from where he was. The three on the other side, however, seemed soft. The kind of people who would come out to play once a month, and spend the rest of their days drinking and gambling and smoking in excess. That was the direction he was going.

"Listen, kid?" he said, out of the corner of his mouth, hoping she was listening. "I really don't want to die, and am going to get the hell out of here. You can either sit here and get shot, or come with me."

Another pause. Gojyo could hear the wheels turning.

"You can help me?" Terrified words, but hopeful.

"Yeah, kid, I can. Just stand up and run when I tell you to. As fast as you can."

"...alright."

Gojyo wasted no more breath or time. The kid understood. He darted his gaze around again, at the three doughy men that were blocking his escape, at the cold guy with the crossbow, and at the arrogant bastards sitting on the roof. They were the most dangerous. At least one of them had to go.

It just took a quick flip of the wrist. The chain extended, flying up the wall, skittering on the roof and slicing the guy in half before anyone had figured out what was going on, and then Gojyo had it retracted, and was holding out his hand to whatever mysterious figure was being masked by the trash heap. "Now!"

They both leapt forward, the girl apparently less helpless than she'd first appeared, as she immediately began to dart along the wall of the alley, holding to it and the curve tightly. Gojyo took the front in a few long strides, laying the three men flat well before they'd even figured out what had happened. The big man lay on the ground, heaving from a hand in the center of his chest, and the other two were thrown well to the side. As they rounded the corner, Gojyo heard laughter. From Crossbow. The man sounded pleased, almost. Happy. Insane.

Gojyo decided that this was an absolutely horrible day. People in some random backwater town were trying to poison and kill him, and laughing while they did it. Not to mention that Hakkai was going to give him The Look if he didn't get back with dinner soon. Shortening his stride slightly, so that he was between their attackers and the girl should they decided to pursue, Gojyo briefly wondered what the hell else was going to happen.

For maybe ten minutes, they ran, avoiding who and what they could, walking quickly whenever they met someone who wasn't trying to kill them, running when there was no one else in sight. Methodically and carefully, Gojyo surveyed out the area, looking for somewhere to hide, rather than continuing the run in pointless circles around houses and yards. Finally, he pulled the girl into the shadows of a broken building, barricading themselves and their voices behind layers of cracked beams and splintered wood.

The girl had stopped crying almost as soon as they had started running, but it was a deliberate effort on her part. She still bore the pale look of someone who was terrified for their very life, and was only holding onto strength by a very thin thread. Her eyes were wide, even as she observed Gojyo carefully, alternating between examining him and watching the shadows for Death and his hounds.

"Alright, kid," Gojyo said roughly, grating the words out, "I need some answers if I'm going to protect you."

She flinched, crouching down on the ground across from him, arms drawn tightly around her legs. In the shadows, her left arm glinted gold, in contrast to whatever dyed Gojyo's blue. He smiled fiercely. At least he could assume the blue itself wasn't going to kill him. Apparently he couldn't be so sure that it wouldn't get him killed, though.

"Sorry. But I'm a bit confused. See, a lot of people have tried to kill me. A lot. Some of them for pretty stupid reasons. Those guys out there don't appear to have any reason at all."

"We're the Prey," the girl muttered.

"So they said. What, exactly, does that mean?"

"It means that they get a prize when we die," she said, the first hint of emotion entering her voice. Bitter. Angry. Scared.

"This happen a lot?" Gojyo tried to keep the surprise out of his voice. After all, it wasn't the first weird, cultish, horribly wrong place they'd come to. This really couldn't be all that different than the places that sacrificed demon maidens to hungry monsters that supposedly existed in deep lakes, or the ones who sacrificed human boys to demon monsters in deep caves.

"It's the Game."

Nice game, Gojyo thought. He could think of a couple of games he would rather play than 'hunt the half-breed'. "Why you?"

"I don't matter," the girl said, quietly.

Gojyo grunted, and pushed himself up. They weren't being pursued, and he was pretty sure that getting out of this place was the best thing to do at the moment. Leave the village, see if Hakkai could figure out how to get the damnable markings off their arms and be on their merry ways.

"Come with me," he said, holding out his hand. The girl looked at him like he was crazy.

"What?"

"We're leaving. We're going to find my friend, and we're leaving. Unless you want some deranged fucker with a crossbow to shoot you and take your head back for whatever bounty is on it."

"...why take me?"

Gojyo rolled his eyes at the shocked disbelief in her voice. This town was fucked up. "Because," he said, pulling her to her feet and throwing an arm around her shoulder. "I wouldn't be very much of a man if I left a beautiful girl to die while I protected my own hide."

"...you're going to protect me?" the girl asked, sounding even more surprised than she had in the alley.

"You could say it with a bit more enthusiasm, thanks. I do know how to take care of myself in a fight."

"Oh," she replied. Still stupefied. She looked at Gojyo's arm, around her shoulders, and at the weapon he had slung over his own. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet." Gojyo muttered. "I haven't done anything."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Gojyo wasn't coming back, Hakkai decided. The man had seemed rather angry when Hakkai had asked him to go in search for dinner, and had probably been distracted by some woman at the food stand. He sighed, and stood, making his way down the stairs.

He nodded briefly to the woman at the bottom, an old lady whose house they had been pointed towards as the closest thing to an inn that the village had. He'd considered that kind of odd, that there wasn't any sort of public housing. While not large, this was far from the smallest village they'd visited, either. The woman nodded back, stiffly, looking at him oddly when he went out the door. Like she thought he was crazy, Hakkai thought, but he couldn't be sure.

The area by the room was deserted, but the sounds of people were heavy up ahead, and Hakkai followed them, rounding the corner to see a wall of people, just as an enraged scream came from the other direction, hitting him in the chest with all the force of a sledgehammer. Gojyo's. Without a doubt. He'd heard it enough in the past few months to recognize it anywhere. Not to mention it sent a stab of fear through him each time he heard it. He pressed, hard, against the throng of people in front of him, trying to break through. A strange mix of apologies and threats passed his lips as he pushed passed them, trying to force through the unyielding crowd.

Finally making it through, he hissed in shock, as his brain tried desperately to figure out what was happening. Four men, surrounding Gojyo, all armed heavily. The redhead himself was on his knees in the middle of the square, head bent. Each and every one of the people in the square was oriented on the sight. Hakkai rushed forward, hoping to reach his friend, arming himself before his first step had even landed. Somewhere, he heard someone say something. One of the men, holding a crossbow, lifted the weapon, laying it at the base of Gojyo's skull.

"Game Over," The words sounded like, and Hakkai didn't care what the words were, as he unleashed the chi ball, knocking the man into whatever oblivion he believed in. The three with him spun around, staring at Hakkai in shock.

"Who the fuck are you?!" One asked, hand reaching for his gun. Hakkai sent his fist crashing through the man's nose for his trouble, and he sprawled, gushing blood onto the ground, facial bones shattered. He would drown in his own blood. The man next to him tried to pull a knife, and Hakkai simply grabbed his arm, twisting it backwards in the exact moment the knife was unsheathed, pushing the man's knife into his stomach, slicing him open with his own weapon. The last simply disintegrated in a ball of white-hot chi.

The silence from the crowd was palpable, as they stared at them in shock. Then, as quickly as it had begun for Hakkai, it ended. The townspeople muttered something that might have been disappointment, and then they were suddenly moving about their business again, seemingly not caring. Hakkai stared with something kin to horror for a few moments, but turned quickly away. It didn't matter right now. The only thing that ever mattered was before him.

"Gojyo?" he asked, quietly, eyes fixed on the redhead, trying to discern mood and situation from the bend of the head, from the way Gojyo's head and shoulders were trembling.

"You're covered in blood," Gojyo remarked blandly, as he looked back at Hakkai over his shoulder, gazing at the other man with the precision of a housewife staring at a child who had just come in from a day of playing in the rain.

Hakkai smiled slightly, disturbed by the expression. He was quite sure Gojyo was supposed to sound more angry. After all, several people had just tried to kill him. So he smiled. It was what he did. If you were confused, angry, hurt, upset, or just plain angry, you smiled. That's how the world worked when you were Cho Hakkai. "I'm afraid I had a bit of a hard time reaching you. What did you do?"

"Got in their way," the redhead replied, standing up slowly. Hakkai winced at the wound in his friend's shoulder. He'd had worse, certainly, but Hakkai didn't exactly like watching the people he cared about bleed. Better than watching them die, he supposed, but he'd had more than enough of both.

"What did they want?" Hakkai pressed. This was like pulling teeth. Gojyo seemed remarkably uninterested in giving up information.

"Her," It was another bland, flat note, and Gojyo finally turned around.

Hakkai wondered if he should swear. Because it seemed like quite a good time to do so. Gojyo looked completely shocked, eyes more dull than Hakkai had seen from the redhead in quite a while. He suddenly wanted to turn on the dead once more, to rip them apart. Hurt them more, no matter if they were dead. They'd saved the world, and no one had the right to make Gojyo look like that.

The desire to swear came from the thing Gojyo was cradling in his arms. He was clutching a girl, no more than 14 years old, tightly. She was covered in blood, and very, very dead.

"What happened?!" He asked quietly, angry and shocked. Unsure. Gojyo looked at him curiously for a long moment,

"Can you hold her for a minute, please?" He asked, as though it were a cooking pot or basket that he was carrying.

"If you want me to," Hakkai replied, holding his arms out. Gojyo carefully transferred the body into Hakkai's care, and then turned to what remained of the men Hakkai himself had just killed. "You can leave now," He said.

"I don't think so," Hakkai replied quietly, somehow managing to both hold the girl's body, and lay his hand on Gojyo's shoulder. "They've been taken care of,"

Gojyo continued to stare at him. "You're sure?" He asked, his voice tinged with sadness. Hakkai winced again. He got the feeling he was supposed to be talking to Gojyo like a child. He couldn't shake the feeling of wrongness. Profound, unsettling wrongness. The dead girl in his arms and the fact that no one seemed to give the slightest damn about the violence that had just taken place were doing nothing to reduce that feeling.

"I'm quite certain. You trust me, don't you?"

Gojyo blinked at him. "Yes." That part sounded alright, Hakkai thought. No matter if it was the truth or not. Firm, instant and sincere. Part of their rhythm. Hakkai, of course, never actually believed it. But it was part of their structure. The question was only ever asked if it had a purpose. Hakkai would never have dared otherwise.

"Alright, then. Will you come with me?"

By the time they actually got back to the inn they were staying at, Gojyo had recovered somewhat, although it was a very liberal somewhat. His eyes had cleared slightly, and he was actually talking, although it was mostly to apologize about not getting dinner. But any talking was good. Gojyo wasn't silent very often, and it quite unnerved Hakkai to see the man rendered voiceless by what had happened. It unnerved him to hear Gojyo apologize, too, but it was far less disturbing than silence. The last time Gojyo had fallen silent had been after...after everything had gone so horribly wrong for all of them.

Gojyo had insisted they take the girl to a local group home - said that she'd told him the women there had taken care of her since she was little. Hakkai had done as asked, and had watched in confused silence as the woman looked at her body for a long, drawn-out moment, then thanked he and Gojyo quietly before wandering back into the orphanage with her. More things wrong, that Hakkai couldn't quite put his finger onto. The fact that the women seemed completely unworried about finding two bloodstained youkai at their gates, holding the body of a child they apparently had a relationship with, disturbed Hakkai greatly. From the look on Gojyo's face, the redhead wasn't feeling much more certain about it. But the women assured them that they would take care of the girl's body before closing the gates. They'd had no choice but to leave.

And leave they did.

Hakkai had grabbed Hakuryu, and told Gojyo to get their stuff, and they left the village altogether. Youkai weren't the only demons in that town, and Hakkai was willing to leave it far behind and quickly. If they'd killed someone important, he imagined that there would have been instant repercussions. Even if it had been someone unimportant there should have been _some _reaction. But no one seemed to give a damn, and that made the hair on Hakkai's neck stand up. He was more than willing to leave it behind.

In the back of the jeep, Gojyo curled around himself, and a brief glance in the rear-view mirror showed Hakkai that the redhead was either pretending to sleep, or actively forcing himself into a state of unconsciousness. Gojyo's forth most frequently used avoidant behavior, after smoking entire cartons of cigarettes, drinking himself in to oblivion, and acting like an asshole.

They'd considered driving through the night, when a man in town had told them that there was no proper inn in the village. But they had been driving for 9 already, and neither had wanted to sleep another night on the ground. So they'd opted to stay. Fifteen hours to the next village, and they would have had showers and comfortable beds a day earlier. Hakkai was starting to think that they'd made the wrong decision. He didn't the unresponsive man in the back of the jeep was going to argue with that judgment, either.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Although it was only early afternoon by the time they arrived at the inn, Hakkai simply asked for a single room and some dry staples of bread and cheese before they both climbed the stairs to a familiarly simple sort of room. Gojyo was talking again. Not much, and not naturally, but talking. Arguing, even.

There had been a brief discussion outside the bathroom about who was going to wash up first, with Hakkai finally winning on obduracy alone. Gojyo twitched up a corner of his mouth in something resembling the smirk he used when he really meant thank-you as he slipped out of his cloak and into small room, sliding the door closed behind him. The click the latch made sounded very final as he looked around, trying to decide between the sink and the shower.

Both. He decided. But the sink first. Hakkai had stopped at a river so that they could wash up somewhat, and to make Gojyo choke down something resembling dinner, but the swiftly moving water had been frothing in ways that promised death to anyone who tried to bathe in its waters. As a result, Gojyo still couldn't shake the feel of blood on his arms and body. He turned on the hot water tap and waited a moment for the water to heat before forcing his hands under the flow. He watched vaguely as the clear liquid took on a rusty tint from the combination of travel dirt and blood traces washing from his hands. He still thought Hakkai should have gone first. Hakkai had killed at least three people. He had only...

...he had only killed one. After promising her that he'd protect her, he had become the tool that had brought about her death. Gojyo balked, hands still pressed under the running water, now clear of blood, and pressed his head heavily against the cool wall in front of him. She had trusted him, and he had done as much as pull the trigger. With a shuddering sigh, Gojyo straightened, turning to start the shower. As he did, something caught his eye, and he froze.

Red. The target. The perfect thing to sight on.

Red. Purple. The mistake he'd made. The reason they couldn't hide. The reason she'd lost her life.

It was him. His defining characteristic. The thing that made him what he was. Whatever the fuck _that_ was. As surely as if he'd handed her over to those hunting them, he'd killed her. The very nature of what he was, was why she was dead. And staring back at him from the damn mirror. Venomously, staring, literally, with a shocked look on its face, as though it couldn't believe that he'd figured it out. Himself. Everything that he was, and everything that he'd ever be. Half. Red. Bloodstained. Kin-slayer and murderer of innocents.

"DAMNIT!" He screamed suddenly, and before he was even sure what he was doing, his hand had raised, crashing through the mirror. Shattering the reflection down the middle. A fist-sized hole through his forehead, and a long crack down the left side of his face, dividing his mouth in two, a strange parody of a cheeky smirk. Somewhere in the background, he heard a concerned exclamation of his name on the other side of the door, but he ignored it, still staring at his reflection, watching numbly as blood began trickling from him hand, down the crack. More red. Every. Fucking. Where. He pulled his hand back uncaring as his flesh snagged on jagged glass, and smashed it through the mirror again. This time, it fell from the wall and shattered, and fifty shards of red and purple stared up at him from the floor. At the top, one was still large enough to reflect his face, the mirror still determined to torture him, and Gojyo fell to his knees, grabbing the stupid, damnable, taunting piece of glass, unmindful of sharp edges, not even feeling when it cut into his hand, and throwing it against the wall. The smaller shards were cutting into his knees, the ones around him taunting, teasing, daring him to do something about them, too.

Gojyo heard the door slam open, was pretty sure the latch broke, and Hakkai didn't sound so much concerned as utterly dismayed as he asked what was wrong.

"I killed her," Gojyo replied, honestly. "This," he gestured to his face, and to the dozens reflected in the glass around him. "Killed her."

"Okay." Hakkai said softly, not denying it. Walking up slowly. "And the mirror deserved to die for this why?"

"I...it wouldn't, won't, stop showing me my mistake. It's still doing it. Only there's more, now"

"Yes." Patient. Quietly. Low. Just conversation. Nothing more. "That happens when you smash a mirror, Gojyo. You get more reflections."

A hand descended on his shoulder, and still Gojyo didn't look away, still staring at the red staring back at him. "It won't stop, Hakkai."

"Okay. Can I try?"

"You can make me go away?"

Hakkai winced, unable to hide his response to that particular question. "I can make _that _go away." He replied softly.

"No you can't. I have to do it." Gojyo said, and reached out for another one of the pieces, ready to dash it against the wall with the other. Shatter them all, no matter the pain. Hakkai's hand caught him by the wrist, pulling it back, holding it tightly.

"It's not fair if you don't at least let me help." Hakkai replied softly, and then Gojyo felt the hand at his shoulder pulling him back, firmly, and then Hakkai's other hand released his wrist, and moved to his face, forced his head to turn, and long fingers were covering his eyes, cutting off the world and leaving him in blessed darkness. Gojyo shuddered, trying to escape for a moment, and Hakkai refused, holding him tightly. Trapped under the determined strength, Gojyo deflated, feeling a rush of nausea and emotion as he flopped down, feeling Hakkai's chest at his back, supporting him.

"See?" Hakkai whispered after a pause.

"Hakkai?"

"Yes?"

"My hand hurts like a bitch, and I can't quite tell what direction I'm facing, so I'm going to pass out now."

"...Alright."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Hakkai had been pacing and puttering nervously for about the past hour. The blood-flow from Gojyo's hand had been fairly easy to manually staunch, but he still wanted to heal it. Which he wouldn't be able to do until the man woke up, because there was no damn way he could heal anything properly when there was half a mirror embedded into various shreds of flesh. The legs had been less of a problem. A few shards of glass that had been easy to pull, and they were already fixed. The hand, however, presented a problem. At least until Gojyo decided to come back from whatever place he'd sent his mind.

Hakkai stopped his pacing to look intently at Gojyo again, eyes running over the man, looking for anything that he'd missed. It didn't make sense. Gojyo hadn't killed her, no matter what the redhead had said, panicked and scared on the bathroom floor. The gunshot wound in her chest had been obvious, as had the bolt embedded in her stomach. Gojyo didn't have either of those weapons. It had been clear who had ended the girl's life, and it wasn't the redhead curled around himself on the mattress. Which meant that it had to be figurative, and Gojyo wasn't one for the metaphorical.

There was also the matter of the man's arm, and the question as to what and why it was dyed blue. Hakkai had noticed how Gojyo had been keeping himself wrapped inside his coat, but had written it off as shock. Now, Hakkai wasn't so sure. His first thought had been towards infection, when he'd been trying to maneuver Gojyo onto the bed without slamming his hand into anything. But closer and frightened examination of the arm had revealed that it was only superficial coloring. Not that the knowledge relieved Hakkai all that much. Because it opened up a path to a whole new set of questions Gojyo would most likely skillfully or not-so-skillfully evade. Hakkai sighed, sitting down next to Gojyo on the bed, looking the redhead over carefully. He didn't seem to be dreaming, at least. Probably a blessing. Dreams in such states were never pleasant. Dreams in general weren't pleasant if you were one of the Sanzo-ikkou.

Cautiously, Hakkai reached out a hand, letting it rest a scant inch about Gojyo's face. "What happened?" he whispered, voice trembling. He needed to know. He couldn't make things better if he didn't know what was wrong.

In response, Gojyo shifted, groaning slightly, the movements of a man about to wake up, and Hakkai stood again, swiftly, not wanting to be too near the bed when he did.

Indeed, Gojyo sat with a start, staring at his hand curiously, processing information, deciding when and why he had hurt it. Hakkai watched his face carefully, for expression, for answer. The closest he got was the dying of Gojyo's eyes for the second time, and a stiffening when his hair fell from around his shoulders, in front of his face. As the red wave crossed his vision, Gojyo hissed, gluing his gaze to the blanket.

Hakkai didn't like it. "Welcome back," he said softly, walking the few steps towards the bed, reaching down to pull a leather tie from their luggage as he did so. Without another word, he rested on the bed behind Gojyo, pulling the other man's hair back, and tying it up in a tight ponytail. Task completed, he gestured to the table, where he'd laid a few things from their constantly re-stocked medical kit out. "Ready?"

"For what?" Gojyo asked numbly.

"Your hand. I can't heal it if we don't get the glass out, and I refuse to let you leave it like that."

"Oh."

Hakkai sighed, reaching down again to pick up a bottle of amber liquid from the floor by his feet. "Drink this."

Gojyo blinked, and finally smiled. Forced, but in the right humor, at least. "Are you condoning my getting drunk?"

"For this?" Hakkai replied, "I'd condone a lot of things."

Gojyo nodded once, and took a large sip from the bottle, swallowing easily. He balanced the bottle on the bed, looking at his hand oddly again. "It will heal completely?"

"Once I get all the glass out of it and can help it along a little, yes."

"Huh," he said, taking another deep gulp from the bottle, and wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.

Hakkai smiled. Whether because he was trying to leaven the situation, or because he was trying to hide the pain he felt at Gojyo's words, because the "huh" actually sounded somewhat disappointed, although he wasn't sure. It certainly seemed to be a familiar tone, though. "I get to practice a lot."

"Yeah," Gojyo said, absentmindedly, and they sat in silence for a while, Gojyo keeping it from becoming uncomfortable by taking frequent sips from the bottle. When it was about half gone, he turned to look at Hakkai.

"Let's do this, Doctor."

Hakkai nodded. "Of course," he said, simultaneously standing and laying a hand on Gojyo's shoulder, pushing him back onto the bed. The redhead knotted his hand into the sheets, and turned his head away. They were well-rehearsed in this part, at least. All sorts of things had been embedded into them at one time or another, and most of them had needed to be pulled out. They usually didn't leave Hakkai with such a bad feeling in his stomach. He grabbed the first big piece with his fingers and yanked, watching Gojyo wince as he did.

One down. Hakkai sighed, and wracked his brain for the inane topic of the hour. Weather was out, since it was threatening rain. Gojyo had barely looked at the women downstairs, so he supposed they were out too. He briefly considered kittens, but couldn't think of anything to say about them.

Gojyo let out a sound that they would both ignore, because it was, of course, anything other than a whimper of pain.

"I ate while you were sleeping," Hakkai said. "I hope you won't be offended."

"As long as you didn't…eat more than your share." Gojyo latched onto the words, understanding that they were a weapon to block the pain.

"I suppose that would depend on what you think your share is. I ate about 3/4s, since I booked the room and got the food," Hakkai said. He'd moved onto tools now, for the smaller, more deeply buried pieces of glass, and small beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he tilted his head back and forth, looking for where the light refracted differently than on blood alone.

"Is that the way this works, now?" Gojyo replied, knuckles on his free hand turning white where he gripped the sheets. "Fine. Next time I order food, you're not getting anything at all."

Hakkai smirked, ignoring him. "Good. You have horrible ideas about what constitutes food, anyway."

"More tha….one culture sustains itself on beer, I'll have you know," Gojyo ground out, panting slightly.

"Done." Hakkai said, by way of reply, holding the mangled hand carefully away from the sheet. He settled himself back down on the mattress next to Gojyo and helping the redhead sit up, figuring he probably didn't want to feel prostrate and helpless any longer. "Now the easy part."

Gojyo said nothing, just let his head drop forward tiredly as Hakkai began healing him.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Fully healed, Gojyo began to pace restlessly a few minutes after he'd finished eating what Hakkai handed to him, walking to the window and back to the bed, sitting on the edge for a few seconds before walking over to the table in the center of the room and sitting on that. After two hours and nine sighs from Gojyo that may or may not have been pointed, Hakkai couldn't take it anymore. He didn't particularly want to let Gojyo out of his sight, but he didn't want Gojyo going out of his mind, either.

"You can go out if you want," he said, looking up from where he'd been using the excuse of grooming Hakuryu, all the while watching Gojyo surreptitiously.

Gojyo jumped, obviously not expecting Hakkai to speak, and Hakkai could have sworn that the man dropped into a defensive stance for a moment. It made him mentally hesitate. He figured that of all the things about him that were horrifying, his voice was not among them.

The redhead recovered quickly, covering his flinch by turning to look at Hakkai, head tilted curiously. "You're sure?"

"Of course. Just come back tonight, I want to leave early tomorrow." Hakkai replied. _'Or just come back in one piece,' he added mentally. _

To Hakkai's surprise, Gojyo didn't even try to argue, despite the man's general aversion to waking up early. "Fine." He said, turning to his pack to take out a small sack of money before heading to the door. As he reached out for the latch, he stopped, staring at his hand again. Then, looking back at Hakkai cautiously, he grinned.

"Thanks."

"Of course." Hakkai replied, finding himself once again troubled. Gojyo rarely said thanks, and certainly not in a tone of voice that implied he was saying it because someone had told him it was the right thing to do.

'Say thank-you to the nice man who let you go out and play,' was really the only way to describe it.

----

It was a little over two hours after Gojyo left that Hakkai looked up at the clock for the tenth time, still quite certain that it had been a great deal longer.

"What do you think, Hakuryu?" he asked, absently. "Should I go after him?"

The small dragon let out a whine, which could have meant anything from "of course you should, you idiot, he's your friend" to "Why are you bothering me? I was having a great dream about dragon tail."

After a moment's thought, Hakkai decided it meant the former. "Thank you," he said, scratching Hakuryu's head gently before standing up. "I'll be back soon. Just a little peek. Maybe I'll buy him a drink."

Another mewl. Probably meant "Alright, you do that. I'm going back to sleep now."

Such a wonderful thing, anthropomorphism. Left all kinds of doors open for interpretation. Hakkai smiled slightly, leaving the extremely helpful dragon on the bed as he went in search of Gojyo. He didn't particularly like doing this, randomly wandering to taverns looking for the redhead, but it couldn't be helped. He stopped briefly at the bottom of the inn, hoping that maybe Gojyo had decided not to leave, and was just downstairs, but his luck wasn't that good.

Ultimately, though, Hakkai thought it should have been harder to find Gojyo. Because while it wasn't exactly hard to wander around the city asking if a tall redhead playboy had come by, it wasn't usually the first stop that was the right one. The tavern was far seedier than even Gojyo tended to enjoy. It was dark and dreary and the atmosphere was soaked with anger and xenophobia. The men at the bar sneered at Hakkai as he walked in the door, probably wondering if he was worth beating up. So when Hakkai bent over the bar to ask if Gojyo had stopped by, he was really only asking if Gojyo had walked through the door in search of somewhere to rest his feet before wandering back out. He was surprised when there was more of an answer.

"Oh, i him /i ?" the man sneered. "Yeah, he's here."

Hakkai forced himself not to take offence at the tone. The "him" implied more of a "that" or an "it" than anything remotely intelligent. Hakkai took a deep breath. He wasn't here to defend Gojyo's honor, he was here because the nagging little voice in the back of his head kept telling him that he needed to go find Gojyo and make sure everything was alright with the man. So, instead, he smiled and asked the man where exactly Gojyo was.

Of course the response wasn't verbal. It rarely was with men such as the bartender. Possibly this particular one didn't know the words for "over there". The odd-sounding derisive grunt seemed to imply that. So Hakkai turned in the general direction of the half-hearted wave of the man's hand, venturing deeper into the enemy territory.

Ah. Of course. The corner of the room where no one seemed to be sitting. The people in this place weren't going to allow themselves to sit in proximity to any demon. Hakkai wondered again why any demon would want to sit next to them.

Of course it wasn't very hard to find Gojyo. It wasn't very hard to him find even when there were people around, let alone when there was no one within 15 feet of him. He did look up as Hakkai approached, for which the man was glad. He would hate to startle Gojyo a second time.

"Wha' are you doing here?" Gojyo asked. Not angry, but curious and confused.

"I thought you might need a drink," Hakkai said, smiling as he sat down across from Gojyo.

The redhead gestured vaguely at the array of glasses on the table in front of him. "I seem t' have qui'a few," he said.

Hakkai forced the smile to remain on his face. "Then maybe you need a hand back to the room?"

Gojyo hesitated for a moment, looking up at Hakkai, trying to judge whether the brunette accept any bullshit. Hakkai hardened his gaze and looked serious.

"Migh'be goo," he muttered into the remains of his current glass. Whiskey.

"Yes. It might be," Hakkai replied, briefly wondering when he'd gotten so good at understanding a drunk Gojyo. He watched the redhead closely as Gojyo stood, ready to lend assistance if needed. It was, as Gojyo swayed unsteadily before his first step. Hakkai sighed, closing the distance between them and pulled Gojyo's arm over his shoulder. As he did so, he hesitated, looking at it closely. It was still tinged a light blue, much to Hakkai's concern. He shook his head, made sure Gojyo's center of balance was reasonably stable, and took a step forward. Slowly, the eyes of the bar patrons glaring holes into their backs, they made their way out of the bar and into the street.

As they reached the first turn back to the inn, however, a shout followed them, demanding that they stop, although not in so many words.

"Yo!"

For a moment, Hakkai seriously considered not paying it any mind. He had Gojyo laying on his shoulder already, heavy and not being particularly helpful with the whole walking thing. But not being helpful about moving was different from not moving. Gojyo in a funk could be impossible to move. He didn't want to try to get Gojyo up again, if the redhead suddenly took it into his soggy head that he didn't want to go back to the inn, for whatever reason. Today had been odd enough that Hakkai wasn't even sure he knew what planet such a reason would even spring from.

He considered ignoring the word. For longer than was generally considered polite. But the call, however brash, was directed at them, and Hakkai also saw no reason to annoy the locals. Especially since whatever had happened in the last town had ended with the death of four of the locals.

"Yes?" he asked, coming to a halt slowly, turning even more slowly, and only a half step. More than enough time to allow the alcohol-soaked Gojyo to come with him.

"Your friend didn't pay his bill!" the barkeep snapped, loud and angry. Hakkai blinked. Somehow, he doubted that, and his thoughts were mostly confirmed when the semi-conscious man hanging off his shoulder managed to form a few mostly coherent words.

"'id," Gojyo slurred, "Pai' for each one when i'came."

Hakkai sighed. Wondered not for the first time who hated him. Whoever it was probably had every right to do so. Hakkai figured that many people had a decent reason to hate him, but he just wished whatever god or great manipulator would just give up on this whole "bad situations" thing and just come punch him in the face a few times. It would be far easier that way.

"My friend says he did," Hakkai replied. Softly. No need to try and cause an altercation, and he just wanted to be on his way. Get Gojyo back to the inn and tucked safely into bed, where there were no dead children, no men randomly trying to kill complete strangers, and no speciest demon-haters.

"I don't mean to insult your intelligence – you seem a smart man," the barkeep said, pursuing them down the street. Two other men flanked him, holding to the shadows. "But perhaps you should consider that he's just too drunk to remember."

"'kai?…there more behinyou."

Lovely. Yes. He'd pissed someone off. Or maybe Gojyo had. Didn't really matter, since they were kind of a package deal.

"Think you can stand?" Hakkai whispered softly, to Gojyo. No need to let the bastards see what was coming.

Gojyo paused for a moment. Considering seriously, and then nodded. "Yes."

"Alright. You might have to. Let's see if I can't convince them to go away, first."

Gojyo seemed to find that amusing. He barked careful laughter into Hakkai's shoulder. "You shou know tha'they have clubs." Trying to enunciate clearly. Trying to prove that yes, he really did still have the faculties to stand up straight.

"Yeah? And that barkeep up there has a knife, too. Tonight just isn't our night." Hakkai straightened, looking the man in the eye.

"I will consider that my friend is too drunk to remember, if you consider the possibility that your simply an ass who wants to take advantage of a downtrodden man."

The insult wounded the man's pride, and he snorted like an angry bull, the sound echoed by the men surrounding them.

"Kff," the barkeep snorted a second time. "Perhaps your eyes also need adjusting, sir, or perhaps that glass of yours needs a good washing. Although even one nearly blind and stupid could see that your friend there is no man."

Gojyo sagged slightly even as Hakkai stiffened, the brunette full of fire and protective instinct. Exiling Gojyo to a dark corner, ignoring his presence, and pretending he was dishonest were all in one category. This was something different. From the increase of weight on his shoulder, Hakkai was pretty certain Gojyo felt the same way. A brief glance also told him that Gojyo did not feel like ripping them to shreds in the same way Hakkai did.

"If he isn't a man," Hakkai said, the words quiet and dangerous, and the hand he had around Gojyo's waist tightened as he spoke. Even one completely dumb, deaf and blind should have been able to see the threat behind the words. "Then I hate to think what you are."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the man asked. Apparently i he /i was feeble. A demon was seriously considering taking his spine out through his throat, and he didn't have a clue. Possibly about the demon bit, or maybe he just figured that a scrawny man holding onto a much larger, sodden guy wasn't much of a threat. Hakkai was seriously considering giving him a lesson in humility. It would be good for him.

"It means that you are a fool who doesn't pay proper attention to his till, to know when a customer pays, and whose only knowledge of the measure of a man comes from the inches dangling between his legs."

Real mature, Hakkai thought, to mention some guy's dick, but the statement served its purpose as the tavern-keeper turned purple, raising his hand and waving it, obviously signaling to the men behind Hakkai and Gojyo.

"Gojyo," Hakkai said firmly, making sure the words got through whatever little thing was eating at the redhead's brain and making him upset, "Stand up."

Gojyo did. Swaying slightly, and looking deathly pale under his hair as he did, but he stood, watching the people coming at them disinterestedly. One quick look at the barkeeper and the men with him, to confirm that they weren't attacking, too, and Hakkai swung around, slamming his hand into the sternum of the closest attacker, and beating the other two back with a chi ball that had been waiting to tear loose since the barkeeper had first used the spiteful tone back in the bar. All three men fell to the pavement, one groaning in pain while the others rolled around, certain they were on fire or worse. Hakkai sighed and turned his attention back to the ringleader, who had gone from purple to pale.

"Are you certain this man didn't pay his bill?" he asked, idly twirling another small ball of chi around his fingers.

"I…think maybe I was mistaken," the man said hurriedly. "I seem to recall there was a pile of coins on the counter. Those must have been his!"

"Alright," Hakkai growled, slightly disappointed that the man hadn't pressed the issue. He wasn't impressed and rather thought the man needed a lesson. "You'd better get back before someone decides to steal them."

"….yes, of course."

The man wasn't changing his mind and coming after them with the knife, Hakkai decided. It had either been for show, or to be used once his goons had knocked them silly. Another quick glare to reinforce that any idea other than going back inside would be a very bad one, and Hakkai turned back to Gojyo, who was still swaying and looking defeated in the middle of the road.

"Why'd you do that?" The redhead asked, and genuine shock and confusion temporarily drove the slur from the words.

'_Because,'_ Hakkai thought tiredly, _'you weren't going to fight for yourself, and this is what we do. We fight when the other falters. That way, we never actually have to hold ourselves up.' _

"They were idiots," he replied, slinging Gojyo's arm back around his shoulder and getting them moving again.

Some things, they just weren't supposed to say aloud.


	7. Chapter 6

After everything, it had proved an easy task to get Gojyo back to the room, where the man had quickly fallen into the slumber of the very drunk and utterly exhausted. After a few minutes, mostly of watching Gojyo, Hakkai had followed suit, staring at the ceiling and trying to quiet all the voices in his mind that were making up stories of what exactly had happened to Gojyo. Most of them quite implausible, he thought. Eventually, he fell asleep as well, keeping one ear tuned to the room so he could wake up instantly if Gojyo did. 

Luckily, thought, the night passed uneventfully, and when morning came they paid the remainder of their bill to the innkeeper, and drove off, towards home. Three days left, they figured, and then they would be home. Another day, and they would be in familiar towns, where they would know exactly where to watch their backs, and where they could relax as much as they ever did. For now, it was just another long and tedious trip down a long path through a very boring forest.

Which meant they had to talk. About anything other than yesterday, of course. Although Hakkai did let Gojyo take the initiative, figuring it would take a couple of hours for him to get rid of the hangover. The man had a pretty impressive recovery rate, but it wasn't exactly mystical.

"Are you looking forward to being back?" Gojyo asked, almost exactly three hours into the trip. He was actually riding in the passenger seat today, which was good. It meant he was feeling slightly less submissive.

"Uh hum" Hakkai replied softly, glancing over at the man beside him.

"What exactly is the point of dragging us out into the middle of nowhere, anyway?" Gojyo burst out, sounding slightly more angry than he usually did in these outbursts, which occurred at the beginning and end of each and every one of these god-appointed excursions. "Can't the temples talk to one another? Why do we have to tell the damn story over and over again?"

Hakkai completely agreed, but forced himself to smile cheerfully. To avoid as much pain as possible. "Because everyone likes a good story, and what better story is there than the one about the four wayward heroes who overcame hardship and went on an epic journey to defeat the evil that would raise a plague upon the land?

Gojyo looked at him. "Is that what we did?"

"In not so many words." Hakkai paused, thinking over what he'd just said. "Approximately."

"Oh. I thought we just beat up some assholes who wanted to rule the world." Gojyo's tone was petulant, daring Hakkai to contradict him.

"That as well."

"Good. With all those big words, I wasn't even sure what you said. Glad to know we were on the same trip."

"I believe that we were. A long and dirty one, punctuated by hours of bickering and gunshots fired futilely into the air?"

Gojyo hesitated only for a second. "They were perfectly valid arguments!"

"I'm sure they were," Hakkai placated the man, "After all, I was driving. I couldn't hear everything that was going on."

Gojyo looked at him suspiciously. "It was the monkey's fault?"

"I completely agree." Calm and only tinged with the slightest bit of sarcasm, which made Gojyo look at him even harder.

"You're an ass."

Hakkai smiled, and said nothing. 

"You could at least deny it!" Gojyo said, crossing his arms across his chest and flipping his feet up on the dashboard. Frustrated. He hated not getting the rise out of Hakkai that he wanted. Not that he ever did, and he actually would probably have a heart attack if he succeeded, but the man was so infuriately good at patronizing and simply being around and making things right. 

"Unlike the monkey, I will not be responsible for any arguments that take place in this vehicle. It gets on Jeep's nerves."

"Oh really?"

With perfect timing, the little dragon-car chirped, speeding up a bit. Gojyo rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine. I'll behave."

Hakkai snorted. "Not likely."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" 

"Exactly what it sounds like. You have something of a knack for getting yourself, and other people, into trouble, my friend." 

Gojyo fell silent. No quick reply, and Hakkai looked over at him, concerned, to see that an almost imperceptible shift had occurred in the position the redhead was in, arms now wrapped around himself instead of simply being placed where they wouldn't be in the way. Mentally, Hakkai kicked himself hard enough to leave a large bruise. He wasn't completely sure what had happened, and the dialogue was simply a variation on one they'd had a thousand times before. But it was a random thing that had set Gojyo off, and Hakkai should have known better. Should have thought harder before speaking. For good measure, he kicked himself again. 

"Why don't we stop for a while, and stretch out our legs?" Hakkai said, mostly just to break the silence, although they had just reached a fairly nice clearing, with serendipitous timing. For once. Gojyo grunted in reply, and Hakkai kicked himself a third time as he pulled the car over, climbing out. Gojyo followed suit, and they both pulled their stuff out of the back, to let Hakuryu have a rest as well. The jeep immediately morphed into his dragon form and took up his usual spot on Hakkai's shoulder. Gojyo walked away, exploring in a fashion that didn't seem too out of the ordinary, and Hakkai leaned against a tree, closing his eyes and wondering if he should breach the subject of yesterday. He was still deciding, and contemplating how to best address the topic, when Hakuryu twittered, the tone one he usually reserved for when Hakkai was in trouble. Swiftly, Hakkai opened his eyes, scanning to locate the source of the problem. It was easy enough to find.

A few yards away, Gojyo was standing, staring at the ground. His hands were drawn tightly into fists, and he was trembling lightly while staring at a small pool at the edge of the clearing. Taking a deep breath, Hakkai walked up to stand beside him.

Gojyo was not staring at the pool, Hakkai amended to himself as he observed the situation, he was staring at his reflection.

There was no wind, so there was little warping the image. Or at least there wouldn't be, if it wasn't for a dead, bloated frog floating in the center of the mirrored image of Gojyo's face, where his mouth would have been. Despite his worry, Hakkai thought that the overall effect was somehow comical, in a horribly morbid way. The twisted grin on Gojyo's face seemed to indicate his thought the same.

They stood, staring at the frog, for several moments. Hakkai desperately trying to figure out the mystery behind it, and Gojyo seemingly unable to drag his eyes away. Suddenly, the creature twitched slightly, and Hakkai blinked, wondering how it could possibly be alive. That mystery, at least, was solved when a large insect appeared, pushing the frog's leg out of the way as it headed on its way to wherever it was that bugs go in their spare time. Gojyo started, and a strangled laugh was ripped from his throat in a way that seemed almost unwillingly.

Hakkai winced as he stood next to the redhead. Hoping he would speak. Tell him what was wrong. Finally, Gojyo glanced at him, briefly, before going back to staring at the frog. "Someone hates me," he murmured.

"Lots of people hate you. Lots of people hate me. Lots of people hate Sanzo and Goku, too. We screwed up a lot of grand plans, and some lesser plans too," Hakkai replied, looking over Gojyo's shoulder at the sight that had Gojyo so transfixed. Another reflection, of course, and a warped one at that. Either what had happened to Gojyo had turned him into the vainest man alive, or he was riding on the cusp of self-hatred, closer than ever before. Hakkai wished it was the first, but he wasn't an idiot.

There was little that could be done about it, though, unless Gojyo decided to talk, and Hakkai had the feeling that he wasn't going to be talking anytime soon. His best friend was bearing bloodstains that wouldn't fade, and Hakkai was completely unable to help wash them off.

All he could do was try and protect Gojyo from the specific circumstances as they appeared. Hakkai sighed, and looked at Gojyo long and hard, and then back at the frog, trying to think of something to help. Then, slowly, he walked over to the woods, hoping that the movement might distract Gojyo. The redhead blessed him with at least a half-interested look, but it only lasted for a second before he went back to frog watching.

His concern growing, Hakkai dug in the woods, searching for anything. After a few seconds, his eyes landed on a sharp looking branch, jutting from the wood of a dead tree. Hakkai blinked at it, and then reached up to break it off. If he couldn't distract Gojyo from the frog, maybe he could increase the man's interaction with it, and speed the process of his unhealthy fascination. Armed with the stick and a determination to protect Gojyo, Hakkai walked back over to do war with the dead frog and, hopefully, the ghosts that haunted Gojyo.

As he reached Gojyo again, Hakkai paused, looking around Gojyo's shoulder once more, trying to decipher if there really was some mystery in a dead frog that he just wasn't seeing, and then decided that no, it really was just a dead frog that was causing Gojyo so much pain. Bracing himself, Hakkai laid his hand on Gojyo's shoulder, holding out the stick.

"Here," he said quietly. Gojyo started - but at least it wasn't a flinch this time, just a moment of not expecting Hakkai to talk - and turned to look at him. 

"What?"

"Here," Hakkai said. "Use this."

"Hakkai?" The tone was incredulous. Absolutely and utterly baffled.

"Yes?" Hakkai asked, still holding out the stick with absolute surety.

"You're giving me a stick," Not a question. A statement. Of disbelief.

"I am. You are entirely too fascinated by that thing down there. So I figured you should just poke it a few times, and be done with it."

Gojyo's eyes widened, and he actually looked at Hakkai for the first time since they'd left the village behind. Not distracted by anything, just gazing at Hakkai. His expression was one between disbelief and profound gratefulness. A few seconds, and his mouth began to work, a sound not unlike that of a cow stuck in a beer bottle escaping his throat before he began to laugh. Perhaps slightly hysterical laughter, but he refused to do something so cliché as break down into cathartic tears. He simply started laughing. Several moments later he stopped to look at Hakkai and the stick the man was brandishing with such vehemence, and started laughing again, a few more chuckles escaping his throat before he became serious again.

When he was done, Gojyo simply folded his limbs in, landing on the ground in a manner that was his alone. Not quite a thud, perhaps a plop, but completely controlled. It was as close as anything in Gojyo's personality came to enigmatic.

"You are a very strange man, Cho Hakkai.," he said.

"I am both strange and an ass, yes," Hakkai replied with a decisive nod, looking down at Gojyo carefully. He was still holding the stick, and didn't quite know what to do with it now that it was no longer a means to an acceptable end other than Gojyo mentally beating himself up over a dead frog. So he held it out.

"Do you want this thing or not?"

"Actually?" Gojyo replied, thoughtfully. "I want to get back on the road."

Hakkai only allowed himself to think for a moment. A thousand possibilities crossed his mind in that moment, but in real time it was only a second at the most.

"We just stopped," he replied carefully, "and Hakuryu just changed. Why don't we eat lunch first?"

"If I agree, can I use the stick to poke you?"

Hakkai was tempted to agree. He'd let Gojyo impale him with the stick if it was going to fix whatever was wrong with the redhead. However, telling Gojyo so was as likely to break Gojyo more, and so was out of the question. "No."

Gojyo pouted. "Fine. We'll stay."

He paused, and looked at the puddle again for a brief moment. "The ground is kind of wet here, though."

Hakkai rolled his eyes, using the time to decide his words. Gojyo, he decided, was non-verbally begging for a specific response. "Picky, aren't you?" he said with a smirk. "Alright, we'll move over to the other side of the clearing."

Gojyo nodded, standing up in much the same manner as he had just sat down, although the audible sound didn't accompany him this time, of course.

"What are we having, anyway?"

"Probably the same thing we had yesterday, unless you managed to steal something from the nice lady at the inn?"

Slight pause. "I stole her heart."

"Well, unless you want to eat some poor maiden's heart, we'll have to settle for hard bread"

Gojyo scrambled to his feet and gave him a look. "It's not the maiden's hearts that I eat."

Hakkai gave him a Look. "There is a line, Gojyo. That statement crosses it."

Gojyo grinned at him, mischievous, and tossed his head, deliberately flipping a few strands of hair that had escaped his ponytail back behind his shoulders. "I was talking about their cooking."

Hakkai didn't reply, and turned to dig through the packs they'd removed from the car, searching for the aforementioned food. Everything appeared so completely normal.

Deceitful things, appearances.


	8. Chapter 7

Three blessedly uneventful days later, Gojyo dropped his bag inside the front door of his cabin, hooking his foot around the edge of the door to keep it open for Hakkai, who was following closely behind.

"My official declaration is that if they want us to perform like storytelling sheep for them again, then they have to come to us," Gojyo stated firmly, taking Hakkai's pack from him and dropping it with equal verve.

"I'm sure that they'll take that into account," Hakkai replied, bending over and picking both their packs up, and disappearing in the bedroom with them.

"I'm serious," Gojyo said, petulantly, pulling a chair out and sitting down to loosen the ties on his boots. No matter that they were already untied. He pulled them off and set them by the door.

"You always are," Hakkai replied from the bedroom, already unpacking the bags, and sorting the contents by whether they needed to be washed off in a bucket or hung on the clothesline ultimately. Gojyo snorted in response and followed him into the room. He grabbed the pile of cookware, and carried it back out to the kitchen. They didn't exactly own a lot of stuff, and any cooking they were doing tonight was going to be in the same things they'd taken with them. Gojyo wasn't about to miss dinner.

Now that he thought about it, though, he wasn't even sure they'd left any food behind. Nothing perishable, of course. The rice bucket in the corner would have something in it, but that was all he could be certain of. They were going to get home and starve because neither of them had remembered to stop for food.Gojyo grunted in annoyance and pulled some water from the sink, scrubbing the dishes angrily.

Hakkai walked in after him, stopped, and watched him for a few moments. Intently. Then turned away and began to dig through the cupboard, pulling out random objects. When Gojyo set the last pan aside with a thump, Hakkai straightened.

"Why don't you go get cleaned up, Gojyo? I'll get something ready for dinner."

Gojyo blinked. For the most part, Hakkai didn't complain if Gojyo did the dishes. But, then, Gojyo reflected, maybe Hakkai was just hungry and afraid Gojyo might break something they needed for cooking.

"I'll do that," he said, wiping his hands on the seat of his pants and turning back towards the bedroom.

"Gojyo? I checked the hot water. There should be enough for you to take a shower." 

Gojyo hesitated, one foot through the doorway to the bedroom.

"Thanks."

As he opened the bathroom door, Gojyo noticed that yes, Hakkai had indeed tried the hot water. The entire place was steamed up bad enough that he could barely see. The man had also, of course, laid out a towel on the toilet seat and put the soap and shampoo right next to the shower entrance.. How thoughtful of him, Gojyo thought, looking through the thick steam which was condensing on the toilet tank and walls, and thickly covering the mirror. Gojyo stripped off his clothes hastily, actually kind of glad for the sauna treatment, since the chill of the fall evening was penetrating the cabin, and turned on the hot water tap, and then the cold. Gingerly testing it to make sure it wouldn't burn him or something.

It felt fantastic. He hadn't had a shower for several days. He couldn't remember when the last one was, actually. The hot water beat down on him, washing away travel grime. The oil and dirt washed from his hair, and it was back to its usual color from the dullish pink it had become.

He stayed in the shower until the water began to run a bit cooler, trusting that the heater would be able to heat more for Hakkai by the time they'd finished with dinner, then stepped out, grabbing the towel from the toilet seat and wrapping it around his waist.

Peering out into the kitchen briefly, Gojyo watched as Hakkai seemed to masterfully be cooking a magnificent meal. Either he was making the rice into cute lil' animal shapes, or the guy had actually managed to find something else in the cabin. Hakuryu looked at him and mewled, and Hakkai turned around at the sound.

"Food's almost ready," he said, looking Gojyo over sharply. "I should have it ready by the time you get dressed."

Gojyo smirked. "But I'm comfortable like this."

"Of course you are. Now get dressed so that you can have your food can be ready."

Gojyo snorted, and turned back to the bedroom, rifling through his drawer for a clean tank and jeans. He pulled them on, and then contemplated his hair. It was annoying him tonight, definitely. It kept getting in front of his eyes and making it impossible to see anything else. He pulled it back.

Hakkai was true to his word and the food was on the table when Gojyo walked back into the kitchen. The redhead looked uncritically at the meal, if he could have found anything to be critical about. Hakkai, as always, had made something out of nothing. It wasn't a feast, exactly. Just a few dishes but...okay, who was he kidding? They were two youngish men living in a two-room cabin in the middle of the woods. Hakkai's creations were feasts. Far better than what he'd been eating before Hakkai, at least.

"Something wrong?" Hakkai asked, from the corner where he was, Gojyo noted, wiping up the last bits of the mess he'd made in the preparations of their food.

"I was just expecting my boots to be stewed, or something," Gojyo replied, "this isn't quite what I was expecting." 

"I see," Hakkai said. "Well, I could start again, if you like."

"No, this is fine," Gojyo replied hastily. No need to make the man think he might prefer boots. Hakkai was the sort to follow up. He looked back at the food. It was making his mouth water.

"Please don't drool on the table, Gojyo," Hakkai said as he sat down. He examined the meal himself for a moment, then watched Gojyo as the man grabbed some for himself, as though he expected the meal not to be to Gojyo's liking.

Gojyo barely noticed. They were home, and even if there wasn't any real food around, Hakkai had done a damn good job of faking it. It can't have been easy.

"Thanks, Hakkai," Gojyo said suddenly, realizing that the man had foregone his own shower just to make dinner. He was tolerating the dirt and grime just so they could have a meal Gojyo felt suddenly guilty for using all the hot water. 

Hakkai blinked slowly, then smiled. "Of course, Gojyo," he replied, digging into his own meal.


End file.
